It's easy to leave the mustache at home

Published 3:14 pm, Thursday, August 15, 2013

Justine Hancockpulled her blue Prius into a driveway in the Richmond District, maneuvering it so she could get to a nearby parking spot, and a woman and two middle-aged men opened the back door and started to get in. She yelled at them to stop.

"Aren't you with Uber?" one of the men asked. "They said they were sending a Prius."

She said no; they got out. No tip was left.

Following up:

-- Vegetables in the Tenderloin?

Anita Saltanis suggests that a mobile vegetable vendor could take a produce stand on wheels around the hood, "reminiscent of some of our grandparents' childhoods."

European newspapers came out with the other side of the Oprah Winfreyhandbag incident last week, as Winfrey herself expressed some regret that making the incident public had brought so much wrath down on the Swiss.

"It's just one person who didn't want to offer me the opportunity to see the bag," she said. (Protecting herself from commenters who were surprised at the price range - automotive - of the purse, she also tweeted: "Turns out the store clerk did me a favor. Just found out that bag was #38K!! She was right I was NOT going to buy it.")

Meanwhile, an unidentified store clerk told the SonntagsBlick newspaper that when Winfrey expressed interest in the line of bags, she informed her that they came in several different materials in several price ranges. Winfrey was looking at one, asked to see one like it in crocodile and this is when the clerk told her it was the same as the one she was examining, just more expensive.

Ken Holley, a checker at Harvest Market in the Castro, is also an airbrush artist, who makes T-shirts and bags he sells at the store. Reading a magazine some time ago, Holley came across a picture of Stephen Kingwearing a worn-out Venus flytrap shirt that Holley had made.

So he cut new stencils, made a new shirt and sent it to King through his fan club. For which he received a handwritten thank-you from the author, saying he was "delighted" with the gift. "But that doesn't mean I'll throw out the old one, though; my wife gave it to me in the mid-80s, and it's the only one from that era that I've held onto." King sent him a book as a "small thank-you," with repeated expressions of gratitude.

Meanwhile, it's still Jerry Garciamonth, isn't it? In his new memoir, "Acoustic Stories: Pickin' for the Prez and Other Unamplified Tales," string bassist Bill Amatneek writes about crossing paths with Garcia, mandolin whiz David Grisman and violinist Stephane Grappelliin the greenroom at Davies Symphony Hall. Grisman introduced Garcia to Grappelli. He was polite, "but clearly there was no recognition on his face as to who this Jerry Garcia might be." Grisman explained that Garcia was the leader of the Grateful Dead. "You could see in his face," wrote Amatneek, "that he had no idea who the Grateful Dead was, either.

"But Grappelli was no dummy. He sensed that he was being introduced to someone important." So he looked up to Garcia and blurted, "Myself, I am just grateful to be alive!"

P.S.: The remains of Outside Lands: Organizers of the conference created a lost-and-found at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium; it closes Friday at 5 p.m., remaining contents to go to charity. Among the items found, reports the San Francisco Appeal: "Several smart phones, numerous wallets, keys, cameras, credit cards, drivers' licenses, three German passports, two U.S. passports and a hearing aid."

P.P.S.: Two images from photographer Bill Owens' "Suburbia" - in print for 40 years - were flashed on the screen behind Paul McCartneyas he sang "Your Mother Should Know."